Crimean defense enterprises operated without any "failures" during their integration into the Russian economy, the premier said

Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev

SIMFEROPOL, April 27. /TASS/. Contracts worth 1.2 billion rubles (about $23 million) were signed with Crimean defense enterprises and the volume of their contractual work will continue to grow, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said on Monday.

"Contracts worth over 1.2 billion rubles were signed. Considering that a half of the [Crimean] district’s enterprises can qualify for participation in the state defense order, the volume of contracts will grow," Medvedev said at a meeting with deputy prime ministers in Simferopol.

Crimean defense enterprises operated without any "failures" during their integration into the Russian economy, the premier said.

Some of Crimean defense enterprises have managed to improve their performance by several dozen times as they mostly stood idle before and are now rolling out products that are needed by Russia’s defense and industrial sector, Medvedev said.

Crimea used to be part of Russia from 1784 until 1954 when Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev handed it over to the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic in a voluntaristic act. Crimea remained part of independent Ukraine after the USSR collapsed in 1991.

A people’s referendum was held in Crimea on March 16, 2014 in which most people voted for reuniting with Russia. On March 18, 2014, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree on Crimea’s integration into Russia.